Mattes
King Mattes Messoloriha, called the Monstrous, and the Motherkiller (by himself), born Prince Mattes Messoloriha, the second son of King Jenes II Messoloriha, called Jenes the Unjust, and Queen Wife Xermosa Messoloriha (Wall), was the last king of the Delkish Empire who dissolved it on the Last Day of Lobtonne as part of a plot to kill the Shine by the Child With Many Names, who was using the king as his avatar. Mattes was the father of King Claimant Thornn Messoloriha, and Akesia Halfloriha, and served as Queen Sulenn IV Messoloriha's regent during the time of Tale of Zul. History: Mattes was shaped by his mother, who was a calculating, and brutal ruler, whilst his father was weak and ineffectual beside her. His mother's brutality extended to how her children were raised. With honor, and dynasty in mind. Mattes was her favorite child, and her last, to her unending ire. Eventually, however, he too would disappoint his mother, when she learned of his secret romance. The mother of Thornn and Akesia, Amethyst ("Amey"), was born a common street urchin. She first met the young Prince Mattes when attempting to steal from him. Mattes was thirteen, and Amey was ten. Mattes carried on a secret friendship with Amey for the remainder of his childhood, and eventually began a relationship with the girl when they both became young adults. Eventually, Mattes learned of an arranged marriage his mother planned for him, and so he secretly married Amey within Nari's Tower of the Halfhouse. His arranged marriage also went through, but he never consummated his marriage with his second wife. It was during a short period of time following his marriages that Mattes fathered Thornn and Akesia on Amey. Eventually, however, his mother learned of his secret marriage, and had it declared null and void by the Father on Earth of the Halfhouse Order, making both of his children bastards. Xermosa also kidnapped Amey, and sold her to sex traffickers within Lobtonne's walls, calling her to Mattes' face "a whore in a haystack." She was attempting to teach her son a brutal lesson, but in the end she merely brought about her own death. Mattes hired an assassin out from Parthage, and made her death look like an accident, a fact which was never discovered, but which she was aware of if only briefly before her death. Mattes told her the poison was called "the Touch of the Painted Goodlord," and that there was an antidote hidden in the room where she was poisoned, which she eventually "found." Contained inside it was a needle. "Does the cat have your tongue Amey?" — Mattes' question to Amey before realizing anything was wrong with her Within days of his mother's death he found his wife in a catatonic state within a brothel called "The Flower Garden." It was a secret establishment catering to the strange tastes of its patrons, and acquired most of its prostitutes, which were called "flowers," by the illegal means of slavery. The flowers were so-called because they were tattooed with flowers around their navels - in Amey's case an orange rose. The establishment also served as a hub for the sale of sugar, which was not illegal at the time, but highly frowned upon, and usually confiscated by the Red & Blacks. It also served as a den of poisoners. Mattes had the establishment burned to the ground, prostitution outlawed within the walls of Lobtonne, sugar outlawed, and had all of its patrons he could find hanged. Amey, unfortunately, never fully recovered. She was taken care of, and lived within Billow's Tower, where she was visited by her children and illegitimate former husband very often. Amey was mercifully put out of her misery just before the events of the Last Day of Lobtonne, perhaps Mattes' last act of sanity, or a gift from the Child With Many Names. Dissolution of the Delkish Empire: Relationships: Mattes stood by as Groll Halfsmith slowly destroyed his older sister Settes II through the use of sugar. Mattes felt immense guilt over this, but ultimately believed that the ends justified the means, and needed his sister to die so that he might take power. He had many years prior persuaded his sister to disinherit Jakos, their middling disappointment of a brother. After his power was more or less secure, he said as much to his son Thornn. Eventually Thornn would take on many aspects of Mattes' personality, but strove to be a better person. Akesia became more withdrawn after her mother's catatonia, and it seemed that Thornn was the only person that would treat her with any sympathy following this event. The light in the dark world surrounding her, for even Mattes seemed to grow to hate her meekness, and bastardry. Despite Thornn's similar origins to Akesia, he had risen to the occasion, and more than that, did not look like a member of House Wall, or in Akesia's case, a younger version of both Amey and Xermosa, the real reason that Mattes grew to hate her. Mattes would even go on to hypocritically arrange a political marriage between Akesia and Billow. Category:Characters Category:Major Villains Category:Delkish Monarchs Category:Monarchs